Straight bar knitting machines



Aug. 27, 1968 E. START ETAL STRAIGHT BAR KNITTING MACHINES 7 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 8, 1965 Aug. 27, 1968 E. START ETAL STRAIGHT BAH KNITTING MACHINES '7 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 8, 1965 1968 E. START ETAL 3,393,554

STRAIGHT BAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 8, 1965 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Aug. 27, 1968 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Nov. 8, 1965 1968 E. START ETAL 3,398,554

STRAIGHT BAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 8, 1965 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 UHIHJUIHHHJUUUUUuuuu i g 1,- MM

UUUUUUUIJUHUUUTUUUUUUWWU Aug. 27, 1968 E. START ETAL STRAIGHT BAR KNITTING MACHINES 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Nov. 8, 1965 Aug. 27, 1968 E. START ETAL 3,

STRAIGHT BAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 8, 1965 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 United States Patent 3,398,554 STRAIGHT BAR KNITTING MACHINES Ernest Start, Ruddington, and Raymond Blood, Shepshed, Loughborough, England, assignors to William Cotton Limited Filed Nov. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 512,259 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Dec. 12, 1964, 50,690/ 64 Claims. (Cl. 66-89) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A straight bar knitting machine having needles and a narrowing head in which left and right groups of loop transfer points corresponding substantially to left and right halves of the row of needles are individually mounted in left and right mounting means. These mounting means are slidably displaceable in opposite directions by a programme controlled forward and backward racking mechanism. Cam operated means are provided for frictionally lowering and positively returning the points in the mountings relative to the narrowing head. The machine further includes loop doubling means comprising left and right butts on the left and right points respectively, left and right stop bars for the left and right butts respectively and a forward and backward racking mechanism for the stop bars, or, alternatively, electro-magnetic devices for the butts. Programme control means control the racking mechanism (or the electro-magnetic devices) for operation of the points in a progressively increasing or decreasing group arrangement.

This invention is for improvements in or relating to straight bar knitting machines and concerns means for loop doubling in rib welts prior to knitting plain fabric onto them.

Such loop doubling is usually effected manually and involves an undesirable amount of labour.

An object of the invention is to provide means in a straight bar knitting machine for effecting loop doubling automatically.

The invention provides a straight bar knitting machine having loop doubling means for reducing the coursewise length of a rib welts last course to that of body fabrics first course to be knitted thereon, comprising a row of loop transfer points which are individually slidable in the machines narrowing head to co-operate with the needles, means for sideways shifting the points in two groups for sideways transference of two groups of the rib welts last course, and selecting means operably associated with the points to provide for suitably changing groups of the points being operative while the remainder are inoperative. Conveniently the selecting means provides for rendering inoperative sub-groups of the points at the inner sides of the groups thereof, and for progressively increasing the size of the sub-groups of inoperative points in stepwise manner so that loop doubling occurs at regular spaced intervals along the rib welts first course. Conveniently also the selecting means is of mechanical form comprising upper and lower stop bars which are adapted to engage under long and short butts respectively of different points and are sideways shiftable to overlap to varying extents to stop the varying sized sub-groups of points from becoming operative.

Alternatively there may be a row of solenoids such as disclosed in commonly assigned US. Patent 3,293,395 or US. patent application Ser. No. 448,115 to engage under butts on the groups of points the selections of the points being obtained by selective operation of the solenoids.

Conveniently the means for sliding the points relative to the narrowing head includes a member frictionally engaged with the points being lowered by said means to operative position except those which are prevented from lowering by said stop bars.

Said means is conveniently cam operated.

In the mechanical arrangement, the stop bars are carried by reciprocatory bars which are sideways shiftable by oppositely threaded lead screws racked by cam operation of ratchet means, each stop bar being accordingly sideways displaceable in both directions.

The ratchet means may be bluff controlled, and the bluffs, or the solenoids when these are employed, may be programme controlled from a programme carrier and electric and/or mechanical reader means, such as disclosed for solenoids in said patents. This loop doubling mechanism may be employed in a rib machine making rib welts for transfer to a plain machine, or in a machine adapted for making rib and plain fabric in continuity such for example as claimed in our Patent No. 841,471.

The foregoing and other features of the invention set out in the appended claims are incorporated in the constructions which will now be described, as a specific embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a sectional view of a straight bar knitting machine having loop doubling mechanism according to the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a front view of a relevant part of said machine.

FIGURE 3 is a enlarged view of the upper part of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged view of an upper part of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged view of needles, points and fabric prior to loop doubling.

FIGURE 6 is a similar view to FIGURE 5 at one stage of loop doubling.

FIGURE 7 is a similar view to FIGURE 6 at a later stage of loop doubling.

FIGURE 8 is a similar view to FIGURE 7 art a still later stage of loop doubling.

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged view of programming means of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 10 is an enlarged view of the upper left hand part of FIGURE 2.

Referring to FIGURE 1 the machine in this example is a plain machine to which rib welts are transferred from a rib machine for plain fabric to be knitted onto them. This machine has usual needles 10 with beards 11 and the needles are set in a needle bar 12 which is operated for knitting by usual means comprising arm 13 on shaft 13a which carries a cam follower lever 13b with cam follower 14 engaging a raising and lowering cam 15 on the machines usual motor driven main cam shaft 9, and usual presser lever 16, on shaft 1601 with cam follower 17 engaging a presser cam 18 on the shaft 9, the presser lever 16 being connected by arm 19 to arm 20 which depends from the needle bar 12. Usual sinkers 21 are slidably mounted in the usual sinker bar 22 and are operable by usual slurcock 23 from Coulier mechanism as well known in the art through the intermediary of jacks 24. The machine also has usual knocking over bits 25 operable by cam operated mechanism as also well known in the art, and thread carriers are also provided under control of the Coulier mechanism for their traverse as also well known in the art.

The machine is also provided with transfer points 51, 51, FIGURES 1, 3 and 4. These points are provided in row formation divided into two groups 51A, 51B. Each point 51, 51' is secured to a slider such as 52, 52', and whereas the group of these sliders for the group 51A of points have short butts such as 53, the other group of sliders for the group 51B of points have long butts such as 53.

The sliders are guided in bar guides 54, 55, 54, 55 secured to brackets 56, 56 mounted on rods 57, 58 and 59 in a usual narrowing head of the machine carried by usual arms such as at 60. This narrowing head has usual dip and rise motions, as part of loop transfer motions, by usual links 61, 61, see also FIGURE 2, connected to cam follower levers 62, 62' with cam followers 63, 63 engaging cams 64, 64 on the shaft 9.

The sliders 52, 52' of the transfer points 51, 51' extend through operating devices 65, 65 to which they are releasably connected resiliently by leaf springs 65a, 65a carried by the devices 65, 65', and the latter embody lifting bars 66, 66' engageable under butts 67, 67 on the sliders 52, 52'. The devices 65, 65' are carried by arms 68, 68, 68 68 which have fork ends 69, 69, 69 69 engaging rods 70, 70, 70 70 carried by arms 71, 71, 71 71 on a rocking rod 72 supported by brackets such as 73, and the rod 72 also has secured to it an arm 74 connected by a link 75 to a bell crank lever 76 which is connected by a link 77 to a cam follower lever 78 having a cam follower 79 engaging a cam 80 on the cam shaft 9.

The groups of points 51, 51 are sideways displaceable one or two needle distances in either direction for sideways loop transference during operation of the narrowing head. For this purpose the bracket 56, at the left in FIG- URES 2 and 4, is secured by screws 94 to the rod 57 and the bracket 56 is secured by screws 95 to the rod 59, and the two brackets 56, 56' are slidable on the rod 58.

The rod 59 has secured to it an arm 96 (FIGURE 10) extending through a slidway 97 in a screw nut 98 on an adjusting screw 99 and the rod 57 has secured to it an arm 100 having slidable engagement in a slideway 101 in a screw nut 102 on an adjusting screw 103.

The screws 99, 103 are supported by brackets 104, 105, 106.

For operating the screw 99 it has on it a ratchet wheel 107, FIGURE 1, engaged by a pawl 108 which is connected by a link 109 to an operating arm 110, FIGURE 2, secured on a pivot 121 carried by brackets 122, 123 and to which is fixed an arm 124 connected by a link 125 to a cam follower lever 126 having a cam follower 127 engaging a cam 128.

For reverse operation of the screw 99 there is a reverse ratchet wheel 112a on it engaged by a pawl 112 (FIG- URE 1) connected by a link 113 to the operating arm 110.

Similarly the screw 103 is operated by forward and reverse ratchet wheels engaged by pawls such as the pawls 108, 112 which are connected by links 120, 116 and arm 117 to the pivot 121.

The cam 128 is a circular cam and when the cam shaft 9 is shogged in usual manner for the machine to have a loop transferring fashioning motion instead of a knitting motion, the cam follower 127 is engaged by a cam 129 which operates the screws 99, 103 to sideways displace the rods 57, 59 which carry with them the brackets 56, 56 and their associated transfer points 51, 51' for the required sideways loop transference.

The direction in which the transfer points 51, 51' are sideways displaced is determined by cam discs 130, 130a associated with the pawls 108, 112 and similar cam discs associated with the other two pawls to permit either the forward racking pawls or the backward racking pawls to be operative as required.

The cam discs such as 130, 130a are conveniently under control of suitable programming means. Conveniently this employs an endless programme carrier 132, FIGURE 2, and associated mechanism substantially as disclosed in FIGURE 9 of commonly assigned US. Patent No. 3,141,- 316 to which reference is directed for full details, said programme carrier having a predetermined arrangement of punched holes according to the programme required of loop tansferring operations.

The four blufiing discs such as 130, 130a are connected say by Bowden mechanisms 130, 130a, 130 13011 FIG- URE 2, to levers such as 164, FIGURE 9, which are releasably connectable by catches 168 to a bar 172a projecting from levers such as 172 on a pivot 176 on which there is hell crank lever 177 connected by pivot 177a to arm 172 and by a link 178 to a cam follower lever 179 having a cam follower 180 engaging a cam 181 on the main cam shaft 9.

The catches 168 are controlled by levers 182, tail parts 186 of which overlie feelers 143 which have pegs such as 14312 to engage in holes in the programme carrier, and which normally hold the catches 168 up clear of the bar 172a so that operation of the cam 181 is normally ineffective on any of the Bowden mechanisms.

The programme carrier will have an arrangement of holes suitable for selective operation of the feelers and consequent upon any hole allowing its feeler 143 to fall, this causes the associtaed catch 168, according to said US. Patent No. 3,141,316, to drop into engagement with the bar 172a, so that the cam 181 is then effective on the Bowden mechanism associated with the dropped catch. By this selective operation of the Bowden mechanism, sideways displacement of the points 51, 5-1 is obtained at required times and in required directions.

The machine is further provided, FIGURES 2 and 4, with upper and lower stop bars 190, 191 carried respectively by bars 192, 193 at a location for co-operation of the stop bars with the butts 53, 53' on the transfer point sliders 52, 52', the upper bar 190 being disposed to cooperate with the short butts 53 and the lower bar 191 being disposed clear of these short butts 53 to co-operate only with the long butts 53'.

The operating bars 192, 193 have secured to them, FIGURES 2, 10, arms 194, 195 extending through slideways 196, 197 in screw nuts 198, 199 on adjacent screws 200, 201 which are supported by brackets 202, 203, 204.

For operating these screws they have two forward racking and two back racking ratchet wheels on them similar to the aforesaid ratchet wheels 107, 112a, the ratchet wheels being engaged by forward racking and back racking pawls, such as the pawls 108, 112, which are connected by links 205, 206, 207 and 208 to operating arms 209, 210. The latter are mounted on a pivot 211 which also carries an arm 212 connected by a link 213 to a cam follower lever 214 which has a cam follower 215 engaging a cam 216. The latter is a circular cam and there is a second cam 217 engageable by the cam follower 215 when the machine changes to a fashioning motion.

In operation of the transfer points 51, 51' they are slidably lowered relative to the narrowing head to bring them into operative position and for this purpose the cam 80 operates to lower the operating devices 65, 65' whereby the tendency is for all the transfer point slides 52, 52' to be lowered through the frictional connection of the springs 65a, 65a in the notches in the transfer point sliders.

However it will be seen that if any parts of the stop bars 190, 191 are in the paths respectively of any of the butts 53, 53, the slides having these butts will be prevented by the stop bars from being lowered to the operative position.

A primary use of the invention is in effecting loop doubling in the last course of a rib welt to reduce its coursewise length to the coursewise length of body fabric which is to be knitted onto the rib welt.

It is for this purpose that the stop bars 190, -191 are sideways displaceable in opposite directions by operation of the screws 200, 201.

Operation of the screws 200, 201 is controlled by cam discs such as 130, 130a but associated with the ratchet Wheels for the respective screws 200, 201. These cam discs are operable in similar manner to the cam discs 130, 130a by connections such as Bowden mechanisms such as 130', 13011, 130 130a between them and link and lever mechanism such as the link and lever mechanism 164 and 186 hereinbefore referred to.

"This control. is such that when the last course LC, FIGURE 5, of a rib welt RW is disposed on the needles 10 the stop arms 190, 191 are at their maximum outer positions whereat they overlap to the extent of only a few of the transfer points 51, 51'. The effect of this is that upon operation of the narrowing head to effect a first 100p doubling operation, all the transfer points 51, 51' except a small central group G, FIGURE 6, i.e. groups 51L, 51R of the transfer points, will be operatively lowered to pick up loops from the needles NL, NR, and then after an inwards shifting for one needle distance by rods 57 and 59, of the groups of transfer points 51L, 51R, to transfer all these loops LL, LR say to the next adjacent needles NL', NR as indicated in FIGURE 6. This results in doubling of loops at the two locations LO, LO at the outer ends of the central group CL of loops.

Following this a second loop doubling operation is effected after first sideways displacing the stop bars 190, 191 in a direction towards each other for a short distance so that during the next operation of the narrowing head a large group G, FIGURE 7 of the transfer points in the central region are rendered inoperative. This results in doubling of loops L LO at the outer ends of the larger group of loops CL corresponding to the larger group G, of inoperative transfer points.

This sequence is repeated, to form further doubling at loops as represented at L0 L0 FIGURE 6, as many times as is necessary to effect loop doubling at increasing distances apart and for as many times as is necessary until the coursewise length of the first course of the rib welt is reduced by the loop doubling to the same length as the coursewise length of the first course of the body fabric.

If desired the selection of the transfer points can be alternatively effected by a row of solenoids, such as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Patent No. 3,293,395 or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 448,115, to which reference is directed for full details, one for each transfer point and having their cores selectively operated to permit and prevent downward displacements of the transfer point slides to the operative position for substantially the same sequence as for the stop bars. According to the above mentioned U.S. Patent and application the solenoids may be springless, the cores being returnable after operation by positive means; the solenoids may be clamped between two bars either or each of which may be tricked for location of the solenoids which are of small narrow form; the cores may be guided in a guide bar; the solenoids may be in staggered formation; by the use of these solenoids, no mechanical force is required other than the ability for the solenoid to move its own core, since the solenoid only permits or prevents the movement of the transfer points and does not implement the movement in any way.

For control of the solenoids the aforesaid feelers 143, FIGURE 9, for reading the programme carrier 132, have arms such as 145, 146, 147, as disclosed in said U.S. Patent No. 3,141,316, for operating electric switches such as 148, 149, 150 connected to the solenoids.

For each selection in respect of sideways moving the operating bars 65, 65 and of either the stop bars 190, 191 or of the solenoids, the feeler arms 143 are lowered to engage the programme carrier and then raised by a tail such as 143b of the feelers such as 143 being engaged by a rod 151 connected to a lever 156 which in turn is connected by a link 157 to link and lever mechanism 158 which is operable by a solenoid 159 under control of the holes in the programme carrier to raise and lower the bar in each selection.

The programme carrier is racked round by a pawl 134 engaging a ratchet wheel 135, the pawl being carried by a lever 136 connected by a link 137 to a cam follower lever 138 having a cam follower 139 engaging a cam 140 on the cam shaft 9, there being also associated with the programme carrier, if desired, a back racking pawl 141 connected to the lever 136 and rendered operative and inoperative by a releasable catch device 142.

The loop doubling mechanism may be employed in a machine adapted for making plain and rib fabric in continuation such for example as claimed in commonly assigned British Patent 841,471 to which reference is directed for full details. In this machine first a rib welt is produced, then the loop doubling is effected, and then the machine changes to making plain fabric knitted onto the rib welt.

In each machine referred to, fashioning of the plain fabric is readily effected by further controlled movement of the stop bars 190, 191 to select points for operation only in the region of the selvedges. The stop bars may be further controlled for selective patterning by the points as will be readily understand by those skilled in the art.

It will be further understood that timing of the operations of the points is effected by virtue of the cams on the main cam shaft and their selection for operation when the machine is changed to fashioning motions, the latter being effected in usual manner by shogging of the cam shaft by shogging mechanism such for example as disclosed in said U.S. Patent 3,141,316 under control of the programme control means.

What we claim is:

1. A straight bar knitting machine comprising in combination a row of needles, a narrowing head operated for loop trans-fer operations, left and right hand groups of individually slidable transfer points corresponding to substantially all of the needles in the left and right hand halves of the row thereof, programme controlled screw adjustment means for efiecting sideways adjustments of the groups of points towards and away from each other relative to the narrowing head when required for loop transferring, left and right hand spring gripping control devices for the trans-fer points, lifting bars for the transfer points and cam operated means for lowering the spring gripping control devices to lower the transfer points frictionally relative to the narrowing head and for raising the lifting bars to return the transfer points, and loop doubling means com-prising variable group control devices for preventing the lowering of variable size groups of the transfer points, and programme controlled group selection means for causing the group control devices to prevent the lowering of the groups of transfer points in a progressively varying group size manner to effect the doubling of loops at progressively varying distances apart.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the left hand group of transfer points have butts of one length, the right hand group of transfer points have butts of a different length, a left hand horizontal stop bar is endwise displaceable under the butts of one length, a right hand horizontal stop bar is endwise displaceable under the butts of the different length, said machine further comprising forward and back racking screw mechanisms for displacing said bars in opposite directions, and programming control means for controlling the racking screw mechanism whereby the bars start at outer positions and are progressively displaced inwards each time to the extent of a small group of the points.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the transfer points have butts, an electro-magnetic device is projectable into the downward path of each butt, and the electromagnetic devices are programme controlled whereby first small outer groups of the electro-magnetic devices are operated followed by adding, to the small groups of electro-magnetic devices operated, additional similar small groups of the electro-magnetic devices for operation in succession.

4. A straight bar knitting machine having a row of needles, a narrowing head operable to raise and lower in loop transferring operations, left and right groups of loop transfer point-mounting means sideways movable in the narrowing head for loop transferring operations, programme controlled fonward and backward racking mechanism for effecting sideways movements of the left and light groups of point mounting means in opposite directions, left and right groups of loop transfer points corresponding substantially to left and right halves of the row of needles, means mounting the points in the point mounting means for individual sliding movements, cam operated means for lowering the points frictionally in the point mounting means relative to the narrowing head and for returning the points positively, and loop doubling means comprising first butts on the left group of points, second butts on the right group of points, a first slidably displaceable stop bar for the first butts, a second slidable bar for the second butts, and programme controlled forward and backward racking mechanism for effecting progressive slidable displacements of the first and second bars in opposite directions under the respective first and second butts, each displacement being to the extent of a small group of the butts.

5. A straight bar knitting machine having a row of needles, a narrowing head operable to raise and lower in loop transferring operations, left and right groups of loop transfer point mounting means sideways movable in the narrowing head for loop transferring operations, programme controlled forward and backward racking mechanism for effecting sideways movements of the left and right groups of point mounting means in opposite directions, left and right groups of loop transfer points corresponding substantially to left and right halves of the row of needles, means mounting the points in the point mounting means for individual sliding movements, cam operated means for lowering the points frictionally in the point mounting means relative to the narrowing 8 head and for returning the points positively, and loop doubling means comprising 'butts on the points, a row of electro-magnetic devices for the butts, and programme control means for the electro-magnetic devices for operating small outer groups of the electro-magnetic devices and for further operating, in addition to the small outer groups of electromagnetic devices operated, additional similar small groups of the electro-magnetic devices in succession.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 486,767 11/1892 Clarke et al. 66-96 2,131,331 9/1938 Pitchers et al. 66-96 2,307,376 1/ 1943 Lorenz 6696 2,722,117 11/ 1955 Golaski 6-689 2,923,142 2/ 1960 Golaski 66-89 XR 3,141,316 7/1964 McCarthy et-al. 66-89 XR 3,292,395 12/1966 Bentley et al 66-89 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 668,620 11/ 1929 France. 632,826 7/ 1936 Germany. 634,214 8/ 1936 Germany.

21,772 7/ 1902 Great Britain. 752,194 7/ 1956 Great Britain. 753,582 7/ 1956 Great Britain.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

R. FELDBAUM, Assistant Examiner. 

